What Would Atlantic City be Without Donald Trump?

What would Atlantic City be without Donald Trump? Good question. It seems that there is a good chance that they will find out if things don’t start to turn around for Trump Entertainment, but for someone who has such a foothold in the town; it really would not be the same. This is a man who owns three hotels in a time when some people have to sell the one they have.

Back in the 80’s when no one else wanted to invest in Atlantic City, Trump did – three times over. In fact, during the 22 year period of 1980 to 2002 only four casinos opened, and three of them were Trumps. Trump owns and runs Trump Marina, Trump Taj Mahal, and Trump Plaza, and two of the three are not performing even remotely well.

Trump Taj Mahal is still performing well, and most of the $250 million that Trump is spending to revamp the three properties will go towards the Taj Mahal. However, by opening the three casinos so close together, he ended up with a large debt which has hurt him over the years in putting money back into the casinos. Trump sold shares of the casinos in the mid 90’s, but that did not help for long. Then two years ago, they filed for bankruptcy, eventually leaving the next year with a new name and team to run it.

Trump stepped aside, and the new team seemed to take off. However, they are billions in debt and may need to start selling off properties to save the ones they have. They have already sold the Trump Indiana Casino in Gary, Indiana for $228 million to help with the improvements, and may need to sell one more in Atlantic City to save the other two. They may refinance their debt as well, which would help with their bottom line and the interest rates that they are currently paying.

One thing is for sure, however, should Trump decide to sell all three properties to get out of the debt that they are in, Atlantic City will never be the same.

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